It was a quarter after one when James woke to the sensation of a slap to the arm and soft kicks to the thigh. As he tried to turn on the lights it took him a few seconds to remember that he was no longer in his old bedroom and thus there was no lamp next to his bed. Reaching out, he found Libby's rubber turtle light and slapped it on, illuminating a sphere around the bed a few feet wide with a very soft green glow. With the light now on James could see Libby's eyes flutter open, still mid thrash.
"What… what's going on? Where…oh…oh…" Libby whimpered.
"Are you okay?" James asked, embracing Libby. As he drew her close he could feel her heart pumping through her chest.
"I'm sorry… I was having a nightmare I think." Libby sheepishly explained, laying her head against James' chest, "Masked men had broken into the room and they were trying to grab me. I kept trying to get away but every time I broke free another one would reach out."
"It's okay, it's just me and you right now, no one else." James whispered, stroking her long brown hair like he had seen the characters in his mother's romance movies often do.
"I think it's going to take a while to get over… well, everything that happened today and I doubt there will be any therapists available to help. Not that we could have afforded it anyway."
"I think you're right but I promise I'll do whatever I can to help you." James whispered.
Libby closed her eyes and sighed. There was some comfort in knowing that someone was concerned for her wellbeing but she knew that there were plenty of new dangers that were well beyond James' control. Still, the thought of James gave her some sense of safety.
"Would you be upset if I thought of you as my boyfriend?" Libby whispered as softly as she could, knowing the wall separating her bedroom and her mother's bedroom was razor thin.
"Do you want me to BE your boyfriend?" James whispered in Libby's ear. James could feel Libby nod, bringing a smile to his face, "Ok. But we can't let my mother find out. She'd lose her mind if she knew."
Feeling a soft kiss on the top of her head, Libby tried to move her body to get eye to eye with James. Her effort to give him a true kiss took a turn as she felt her body start to slide, suddenly falling out of the twin sized bed and landing hard on the floor.
"Are you alright?" James asked, grabbing the turtle light and leaning over to see what had happened.
"Yeah, I'm okay, just a bit clumsy."
James and Libby smiled at each other awkwardly for a moment before the bedroom lights flicked on.
"What is going on in here?" Emilia, clad only in a night shirt and underwear while tightly gripping a truncheon, shouted, "Where is the girl?"
"I'm right here Ms. Richardson." Libby said softly, pushing herself up onto her knees so that she would be visible from the doorway.
"She just fell out of bed, that's all." James explained, "It's a small bed for two people."
Emilia sighed, loosening her grip on her truncheon. As Leah approached, Emilia looked at her and shook her head. "Your daughter fell out of bed."
"She can be a bit accident prone." Leah said softly, spotting the weapon in Emilia's hand and fearing what she had planned.
"Alright, but if she falls out of bed again she'll be sleeping on the floor from now on." Emilia said, grasping Leah by the wrist, "Now, everyone go back to bed. We all have things to do tomorrow so I don't want to hear any more commotion."